Coming Home
Chapter 2: The Usual Rumors
"Yeah, that Jack, he just moved onto the farm beginning of the season," Cliff had been relaxing in the shade of a tree up in the mountains, when one of the carpenter's apprentices had noticed him and struck up a friendly conversation. Cliff was surprised that the man was so friendly, and didn't seem inclined to ask any questions of his own regarding Cliff's history, something he wasn't used to. "It's a real shame. The old man who ran the farm before, Jack's grandfather, passed on last Winter. He hadn't been keeping the farm up for years at that point. Too tired, I guess." Cliff was content to let the man rattle on, encouraging him every now and then with an attentive nod and the occasional question.
"So Jack runs the farm all by himself?"
The carpenter nodded. "He's been running around like crazy all Spring. He comes up to the mountain every morning to gather herbs, clears off a bit of the land, takes care of the crops, and has time left over to make friends."
"That's pretty amazing," Cliff said, impressed.
"You think that's amazing!" the man said, waggling his hatchet for emphasis. "You should've seen the place before Jack started working on it! If you think it's bedraggled now..." he trailed off, apparently unable to find words with which to describe the extent of the dilapidation before Jack had moved in. "The things that man has done in the space of a few months," he went on after a moment, shaking his head in astonishment. "I'm personally surprised he hasn't worked himself sick!"
"Me too," Cliff agreed, even more impressed than before.
The carpenter's apprentice glanced up at the sky, marking the time. "Sorry to take off on you, but I've got work to do," he said apologetically, hefting his hatchet as though to prove his words.
"No worries," Cliff assured him. Nodding cheerfully, the carpenter took off down the trail. Cliff watched as he made his way across the foot bridge over the river and disappeared from view.
"Damn," he muttered softly to himself, more taken with the other man than ever. Why am I doing this to myself? he thought, irritated. Again, the cruel words spoken by another echoed in his mind. "This kind of relationship can't last forever, Cliff," Sighing, Cliff rearranged his position beneath the tree so that his legs were crossed. He propped his elbow on his knee and his chin in the palm of his hand, and stared at nothing.
"C'mon, Jiro!" Jack called to the lounging dog. Jiro's ears perked at the sound of his name, and he was on his feet a moment later, trotting after his master.
Jack and Jiro made their way along the road to the inn by the town square. The sun had just set, and Jack was ready for his end-of-the-day pint. He'd brought Jiro along recently because Karen, the girl who worked at the bar, seemed to like the floppy-eared dog, and tended to let him sweet talk her into a round on the house if Jiro was there to stare at her with his warm puppy dog eyes. Why Jack's own pitiful, pleading look failed to score with the waitress was something that puzzled him. But oh, well, he'd go with what worked.
As he entered the bar, followed closely by Jiro, two things caught his immediate attention. The first was that Karen did not appear to be working tonight, so he would have to spring for all of his own liquor. The second was that Cliff was seated at a table in the far corner and was idly spinning a glass of water around in small circles on the table. Deciding to be friendly, Jack made his way to the table where Cliff sat, stopping briefly at the bar to pick up a pint from Duke, the bar-tender.
"Mind if I sit down?" He asked, as he drew even with Cliff's table. The other man looked up, startled. "Oh, uh...sure," he waved to the other side of the table and Jack sat down, urging Jiro to lie still beneath the table. Cliff watched the dog with a smile as he settled into a small comma-shape between their feet.
"Don't like beer?" Jack asked, gesturing at the glass of water Cliff held loosely in his hand.
"No money," Cliff admitted after a moment with a shrug.
"Well, that's easily fixed, then," and without another word, Jack stood, walked over to the bar and asked Duke for a second pint. The grey-haired man obliged, and Jack returned triumphantly to the table, plunking the mug down in front of Cliff with a grin. Cliff stared at Jack as he settled back into his seat, picked up his own mug and took a long pull. He clinked the mug back down onto the table with a satisfied sigh and glanced at Cliff to see how he was enjoying the beer.
"Uh...you do like beer, don't you?" Jack said, taking in Cliff's confused and slightly befuddled expression.
"I like it, it's just that...you didn't...um...you didn't have to..."
Jack broke him off with a wave of his hand and a grin. "If that's your only problem, forget it. I'd feel weird drinking in front of you if you weren't drinking too,"
Cliff's stomach jumped up to join his heart, which caused his heart to leap to his throat to join his windpipe. Stupid, he's just being friendly, he told himself irritably. He picked up the mug and took a cautious sip. The liquid was cold and dark, and it tasted wonderful after living for the past week or so on spring water. He took another mouthful, then tilted his head back and drank several swallows in one go. "Good, huh?" Jack grinned across the table at him, and he couldn't help but smile back.
"Very," he agreed.
The two sat in silence for a moment or two, before Cliff spoke up, for lack of anything better to say: "How's your chicken?"
The question caused Jack to grin again, which in turn caused Cliff's stomach to flip-flop. "Great! I decided to name her Greta, and she's laying eggs like mad! Do you still want to come see her?"
"Yeah, I'll drop by soon," Cliff agreed.
The two passed a pleasant half-hour chatting, until Jiro got up from beneath the table and wandered over to the door of the bar.
"I guess that's my cue," Jack said, laughing. "See you around." He stood, waved good-bye to Cliff, then turned and followed his dog out into the night. Cliff stared after for a moment, then returned his gaze to the table where it had been before Jack's arrival, and his now empty beer glass.
Jack was just finishing his breakfast (two rice balls and a cup of herbal tea) the following morning when there was a knock at the door. Curious, he looked across the small room and called, "Come in!" No one had ever visited him inside his small, dark cabin before...all previous visitors had waited for him outside.
"Hey, Jack," it was Cliff. He came into the room cautiously, as though not quite sure he really could. Jack felt a little flutter of some unnamed emotion watching him - he was so cute, like a nervous puppy. "I'm sorry to bother you so early in the morning, but I caught a lot of fish, and I wanted to share," Cliff explained, holding out a medium sized fish, which Jack could see had been cooked over a fire.
"No worries, I'm always awake at this time," Jack said, accepting the fish. He immediately took a bite, and chewed appreciatively as the light, smoky flavor filled his mouth. "This is really good!" He said between bites, and promptly finished the whole thing, minus the head and tail. Jiro would probably appreciate the tidbits better than he would.
"Well, um, I'd better get going," Cliff said, rubbing the back of his neck in a nervous fashion. "See you," with that quick good-bye, he quickly made his way out the door. Frowning, Jack stared at the door for a moment before a thought occurred to him. He rushed out into the bright morning, intending to call Cliff back so he could show him Greta, but the other man had disappeared.
Jack frowned again. Cliff couldn't have disappeared so fast unless he'd run. He absently dropped the remains of the fish Cliff had given him into Jiro's bowl, staring out at the crossroads. Not so much a nervous puppy as a scared puppy, he thought. I wonder why that is...? Still frowning, he turned around to regard his farm, only half-noticing that some of the turnips were ready to be harvested. After a moment of unsuccessful pondering, he made his way over to Greta's little pen to check for eggs.
Jack was quite busy the next few days, because more and more vegetables were ready to be shipped. He hardly left the farm because of all the harvesting and shipping, and consequently, did not see much of Cliff...or anyone else, for that matter.
He was pulling away industriously at a particularly stubborn weed when a voice over by the house called out. Straightening, he turned to see Karen leaning against the dog house, watching him. He waved and started over to see what was up.
"Working hard?" she asked, though it was perfectly obvious he was.
"Yeah...everything got ripe all at the same time, so I've just been harvesting and shipping for these past few days," he said, taking this moment of rest to wipe his forehead with his bandana.
"It's looking really good," Karen said, staring out at the fields. Jack followed her gaze. While there were still a few large rocks and stumps he had yet to break up and move, the majority of the field was now clear. Jack smiled at the compliment. In the short time he had known Karen, he knew that she was not the type to hand out unnecessary praise.
"So what's up?" he asked, turning back towards her.
"Oh! I thought you might like something to drink," she bent down to pick up a jar full of deep red liquid he had not noticed before. She unscrewed the lid with a loud "POP!" and handed him the jar.
"Wine?" he asked, catching a whiff of the heady aroma from within the container.
"From the vineyard," she said, nodding. "It's not nearly as good as grandmother's was, though..." she said, her expression becoming downcast. Jack took a sip, then another, before tilting his head back and drinking the sweet liquid with enthusiastic swallows, while Karen watched approvingly. The wine was cool and delicious, and it slid easily down the throat. He briefly wondered how the wine Karen's grandmother made had tasted. Compared to what he was drinking now, it must have been a truly fantastic substance.
"Wow, thanks so much!" he said happily a few moments later, after wiping his mouth on the back of his arm and returning the jar to her. She accepted it with a small smile and a nod. "Don't work too hard now, okay?" He grinned at her, and she turned to make her way back to the crossroads. "See you around," she called over her shoulder, before she disappeared from view.
As she wasn't looking where she was going, she bumped into someone going the opposite way, and they both fell to the ground.
"Sorry sorry sorry!" she looked up to the source of the fervent apologies to see Cliff, the guy who had shown up in town a few weeks ago. He was scrambling to his feet even as he spoke, and offered her a hand up as he continued to apologize. "I wasn't paying attention to where I was going, I'm really sorry, are you alright? You're not hurt, are you?" His mouth seemed to be on autopilot, and his grey eyes were worried. Karen took his hand and allowed herself to be pulled to her feet.
"It's okay, really. I wasn't paying attention either," she said in a placating tone, which stopped his stammering. They stood in awkward silence for a moment, Cliff's head turned away in embarrassment. Karen took the opportunity to study the young man. His face was slightly flushed, and he seemed to be staring at something...she followed his gaze and out of the corner of her eyes saw Jack, back at work, bending over a patch of weeds. Her gaze snapped back to Cliff's face, and her eyes narrowed. He hadn't been blushing when he was apologizing...
Female intuition was ringing off several alarms in her brain, and she resolved to investigate the matter in greater detail later. For now, though, another interesting object had caught her eye - Cliff's ponytail, in fact. While most of the hair on his head was dark, the tips of his bangs and his ponytail were quite definitely blonde, much like her own hair.
"Hey, you wouldn't happen to know..." before she realized it, she had spoken, asking Cliff if he knew her grandmother.
"Oh, yes...That was my grandmother...she died about twenty years ago. I never knew her," His attention once again on Karen, the faint blush she had noticed before disappeared. Definitely something to investigate, Karen thought.
"She's my grandmother too...I guess that makes us cousins then, doesn't it?" Karen said, smiling. The young man looked startled, then smiled back. "Do you want to come up to the vineyard?" she asked abruptly, surprising both Cliff and herself.
"Umm...okay," he agreed. So she lead him away from Jack's farm up the hill towards her house.
Something is definitely up, Karen thought smugly to herself as she watched Cliff take off down the hill. They'd talked for hours, catching up on some family history, and the sun had set almost without their noticing. I thought it was boring around here before, but now things may just get interesting...
To Be Continued
Author's Notes First off, I want to say this whole thing with Karen is probably not what most of you are thinking. Just a bit of fair warning. Secondly...um, there's not really much of a secondly...Jack is so cute and clueless...Let's see how long that lasts. Until next time...in chapter three! O-o